International News

OSAKA, Japan, (MILLAT+APP/AFP) – Navy aircraft
mechanic Kuniyoshi Takimoto watched as Japanese planes roared off the aircraft carrier Hiryu to attack Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
The shock assault 75 years ago Wednesday in Hawaii sparked patriotic
celebration in Japan but left Takimoto feeling uneasy.
“I wondered if such a poor country would be all right fighting such a
big one,” the former real-estate agent, now 95 and one of the few Japanese
participants still alive, told AFP at his home in Osaka.
This attack brought America into World War II — though it was
already well underway for Europe.
This year’s anniversary comes after President Barack Obama’s visit in
May to Hiroshima, the Japanese city pulverised by a US atom bomb in the closing days of the conflict.
Japan’s Pearl Harbor blitz fired up resolve in the US, with president
Franklin Roosevelt declaring the day would “live in infamy.”
“It was just a start… and more or less a deceptive attack,”
Takimoto said, stressing that given its surprise nature some success was virtually guaranteed.
He and other crew members were stunned when first informed of the
mission after their flotilla departed towards Hawaii.
Reaching an area 460 kilometres (285 miles) from target, the first
wave of some 180 planes, including nimble Zero fighters, roared off the Hiryu and other carriers, followed later by a second swarm.